I fixed the wall!

Being an Artisan gardener means.... that you could do something simple and ordinary, but instead you choose to go one step beyond....

Here's a not-very-good picture of something which really annoys me: one of my Clients asked the handyman to re-build a section of a low stone wall around a raised bed: the wall was damaged in places, and falling down in others, and they also asked the workmen to insert proper solid steps in the middle. They did a reasonable job of the steps, but look at this:

Ignore the pile of loose bricks to the right, they were put there out of the way, temporarily (not by me!).

We are looking straight down at the top of the wall.

Look at the stone wall in the centre.

Look at the wooden fence.

Admire the 4" gap between the end of the stone wall, and the wooden fence

Why?!

Why?!!

There's a height difference of a good 12" (30cm for you youngsters), which is why the wall was there in the first place. So the soil from the bed is going to continually wash down through that annoying gap.

This also means that the owner will always be sweeping that end of the patio, as there will always be soil and debris washing down onto it.

I put up with this for about a month, then finally my inner "I like things NEAT!" persona took over, and I went in search of a suitable stone to fill the gap.

Two minutes later:

There we go!

I found a stone which was almost exactly the right size and shape to be wedged into the gap.

Now the soil won't wash out of the bed, and now I can stop grinding my teeth every time I weed that area!

So the question remains: am I being over-fussy?

Do you allow workmen to do a crappy job such as this?

Are there any handymen out there who would care to comment - do you just not "see" this sort of thing? Would it just not occur to you that a raised wall really ought to go all the way to the end of the bed? Would you have left it like this, if it were in your own garden??!!

Answers on a postcard, please...